STATE COLLEGE -- There's not always something to be gained from a loss, or even a win, for that matter, besides the two points. But in a pair of setbacks to open big play at Wisconsin last Friday and Saturday, Penn State learned plenty.

The Lions are 3-9-1 with nearly all of the 2013 portion of their schedule complete save for two games at the Three Rivers Classic Dec. 27 and 28 at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. State has taken a ranked Union side to the final horn, recovered from a 4-0 shutout in the first game against UMass Lowell to battle late in a 3-2 loss to the Riverhawks the next night, and had the Badgers tied late in the third Saturday night before losing 4-3, this one on the heels of 7-1 defeat at Kohl Center Friday night.

Through it all, head coach Guy Gadowsky has seen signs of hope and signs of frustration, evidence of nearing a full 60 minutes of play and evidence that it might not be so close. After opening Big Ten play, however, the third-year bench leader believes his team finally has begun to find its identity and add to its foundation rather than setting it.

It's a point he had hoped to reach earlier, sure. But it had to come sometime, and in this case, it's found before the Lions absolutely need it to stare down a second half that features all conference opponents.

"If we are able to duplicate [Saturday's] performance, then we're going to have some success in the Big Ten maybe this year," Gadowsky said Tuesday. "Whole lot closer than we were in October, and even November," he added when asked how close his Lions were to sustaining that performance.

"I'm not sure if we can guarantee that every game we play we're going to have 60 minutes like we had, but certainly the fact that we did it against an excellent team, and we played well. There's a lot of things to be very happy about. You can never guarantee it's going to happen in the future, but I know we're a whole lot further ahead now than when we started."

Age, maturity, time, awareness, and practice were the reasons Gadowsky thumbed out for the sudden shift, and all were on display Saturday night.

It would have been easy for the Lions to roll over after the Badgers took advantage of what players called 'too many big mistakes' in Friday's skate, but they didn't, instead opting to get goals from three different skaters, including Zach Saar's marker that gave State its first lead of the weekend with roughly 12 minutes to play, and 27 saves from goaltender Matthew Skoff.

In a results sense, it went for naught, as Badger skater Nic Kerdiles rifled home his seventh of the year at the 11:52 mark of the final period to lift Wisconsin to a one-goal victory. Yet in a building sense, it showed Penn State's players exactly what they are working toward under Gadowsky and his assistant's guide, and what can happen when that plan works over the course of a game.

"I think we're starting to build an identity, and we want to keep building it," winger Max Gardiner said. "Like we said from the start of the year, what we want to do is be the hardest backchecking team in the country and we want to play hard, and I think we did that on Saturday night.

"You see it in spurts; we need it to be more consistent though. You saw some of [an identity] on Saturday night, but other games you see it not all the way through. We need to do it all the way through in order to get that identity."

The identity, of course, is what Gadowsky has always preached since he arrived from Princeton: a tough, physical team that's willing to bang in the corners and win pucks along the boards but also skate in open ice and create for each other with a high hockey IQ.

Penn State won't be able to show just how far its come until the holiday tournament, and not again in front of a home crowd until it returns to Pegula Ice Arena Jan. 12 and 13 to kick off the spring semester with Minnesota.

By the time that tournament rolls around, the Lions will have gone a month and 13 days without a win, a fact that will undoubtedly gnaw at the men who wear blue and white sweaters until the puck drops against Robert Morris Dec. 27. They'll practice this week, and then have the next week off before an optional skate Dec. 25 and a mandatory one Dec. 26 before a quick bus ride to Pittsburgh kicks the playing season off again.

And one thing is for certain: without Saturday night's effort, that date would seem a lot further away than it is.

"We proved that we can play with a Wisconsin, and that gives us a lot of confidence," captain and center Tommy Olczyk said. "We didn't win the game. We wanted to win the game, we haven't won a game here in a month, and we definitely wanted to go into break with a win a little sooner.

"But being able to play with Wisconsin, looking at the schedule for next semester, it's pretty much a Big Ten opponent every weekend. We still have some work to do."

Notes

Gadowsky said Tuesday that Penn State will re-gain the services of forward Curtis Loik in the New Year. The winger has missed five games this season for undisclosed reasons, but notched two goals in the eight games he played.

Penn State stuck with Skoff a night after he was pulled for P.J. Musico late in the third, but the head coach said that replacing him was about "not leaving him out to dry," as opposed to for performance reasons. Gadowsky said Skoff has been the Lions best netminder to date, and his 3-5-1 record is an indication of that to Eamon McAdam's 0-4 mark. Plus, the skipper had been looking for a chance to give Musico some game action.

In the latest USCHO rankings, released Monday, fellow Big Ten foe Minnesota is ranked second, and received 14 first place votes, while Michigan comes in at number three. The Badgers bumped up to No. 15 with a pair of victories over the Lions, while Ohio State received 20 votes, which left it on the outside looking in on the 20-team ranking.